Michal Solarski (b. 1977, Poland) is a London based photographer. His interest in documentary photography stems from his background in political studies, where he developed the passion to adapt his thoughts and observations of the world in a visual manner. Photography enabled him to capture situations and environments in a thought provoking way. After graduating in Poland with a Masters in Politics, Michal moved to London and studied at The London College of Communication where he earned an additional masters in Documentary Photography. He divides his professional career between advertising, documentary photography, traveling extensively between the UK and Eastern Europe where he produces the majority of his work. Most of his photography is strongly based on his own background and experiences, with a strong concentration on migration and memories.

About the Photograph:

“Ever since I visited my dying grandmother at the care home, I wanted to go back there with my camera. She spent the last days of her life in Cieszyn, it’s a beautiful town in southern Poland, just on the border with Czech Republic. The care home is called Boromeuszki – it took its name from the monastery that runs it. I was taking pictures there in the winter 2010/2011. This particular picture was taken on the 24th Dec 2010. After more then a year since she had a stroke, my parents were too tired to cope with the constant care she required. I remember that I felt great sadness looking at her as she lay in this massive gloomy room among other patients. It took me several years to came back. I found that life there is really slow and filled up with routines. Day after day passes in the same way. There is a time to sleep, a time to eat, a time to clean, and very little in between. Most of people who live there feel unwanted and neglected by their relatives. I spent two weeks there just walking around, talking to the residents, playing games, and watching television with them. For two weeks I shared their life. Those were two very emotional weeks of my life. For me, my time spent there was a tribute to my beloved grandmother.”

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Ula Wiznerowicz (b. 1986, Poland) received a BA Hons Degree in Photography at Middlesex University (2010). Her photographs have been exhibited in solo shows in Italy, England and Poland. Her careful handling of subjects and their emotive stories has won her acclaim with most recently a FotoVisura Grant, along with Ideas Tap Portfolio Award in 2012 and Channel 4/Saatchi Gallery Prize and D&AD Best New Blood Prizes in 2010.

About the Photograph:

“This image is part of the series called Behind the Curtain, focusing on the effects of alcoholism in a small rural community in Poland, where I grew up. The cycle of images depicts a personal journey through individual stories of men and women dealing with alcoholism. Although not every person in my pictures suffers from alcohol dependency, each one has, in his or her own way, encountered this problem through their relatives or circle of friends. Over the course of one year, I gathered relevant information, researching medical data, and interviewing alcoholics, their families and doctors who specialize in treating the addiction. I believe that this was essential, as it enabled me to fully understand the problem that plays a major role in my country.”

“The woman in this picture is my neighbor’s mother-in-law, who lives in Palmowo, a village of 120 inhabitants, where I grew up. She made me a coffee and started telling a story about her daughter, whose husband went to prison for domestic violence. While serving his sentence, he had gone through alcohol treatment and now hasn’t been drinking for more than seven years. Irena tells me: ‘When he came back from prison he never even said he was sorry for what he’s done. He doesn’t talk to me anymore and he stopped coming over since he finished that bloody house. In court they asked if I forgave him. I said alright, but who will pay for all our grief?’ The story she told me was was very moving and in that moment it didn’t feel right to take pictures, but she said that it’s all right…She fixed her eyes full of tears at the window and that was when I took the shot.”

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Mikolaj Nowacki (b.1972, Poland) received his Master’s degree in International Law, pursuing a doctoral thesis that examined environmental aspects of International Space Law. He discontinued his doctorate to focus on documentary photography and worked eight years for major Polish newspapers. His work has been published in the Polish editions of National Geographic and Newsweek and also in The New York Times Lens Blog and Le Monde among others. Mikolaj has won numerous awards and was a finalist in a number of Polish professional photography contests. He was also nominee in Prix Pictet and achieved Special Mention in Winephoto International Photo Competition. In 2013 he finished his two year Mentor Program with VII Photo with Antonin Kratochvil followed by a solo exhibition “Odra” at the VII gallery in New York. He is based in Wroclaw, Poland.

About the Photograph:

“This photo shows preparations of the crew on a battleship to moor in the naval port in Gdynia, Poland. Between 2011 and 2013 I took part in war games on Baltic Sea. It was my personal project. These were one week cruises of battleships. This particular cruise was on the small mine ship ORP Wdzydze. After a few days of intensive exercises of setting mines and destroying mines the crew was forced to come back to the port. It was winter in 2012, and very cold. After the political transformation in 1989, the Polish navy underwent huge changes but the passion of the sailors for the sea remained the same. This personal project was an attempt to understand the life of Polish naval sailors on battleships during their war games exercises.”

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Kuba Kaminski (b. 1985, Poland) holds a degree in photography from the Lodz Film School. In 2004, he started work as a professional photographer for the “Zycie” daily and since 2005 has been a staff photographer for “Rzeczpospolita” daily newspaper till 2012. Kuba has been working on assignments in Europe, Asia, US and South America. He is also involved in his own documentary projects, such as “The Sobering Chamber”: about post-communist facilities for alcoholics and “Salaryman”: concerning overworked Japanese corporate workers. Kuba participated in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in 2011 and won 3rd prize Best Of Photojournalism, Best Published Picture Story (smaller markets), USA. He is part of Emerging Talent with Reportage by Getty.

About the Photograph:

“The picture is part of my Whisperers story. Whisperers are people who believe they possess a gift from God giving them the power to heal all kinds of diseases and physical pain. They claim that they are also able to throw spells and charms and free people from evil possession. The name probably came from the way they treat their believers, whispering special prayers into their ears. Whisperers are mostly elderly women who live in small villages in the Podlasie region in the eastern part of Poland, a few kilometers from Belarus. Their practice is derived from the Orthodox church but today the church don’t want to recognize them, distancing itself from them. They have been part of the local culture for hundreds of years in the Podlasie region, a land of mysticism and symbols that dictate the rhythm of life for many people living there. In the picture a whisperer performs the curing of a young girl by kneeling down under a holy icon of St. Ann during a procession in Stary Kornin village.”

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Tomasz Lazar (b. 1985, Poland) studied at the West Pomeranian University of Information Technology. He is currently a first year student at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (the Czech Republic). His work has been exhibited in Poland and has been published in Radiate Magazine. Tomasz is currently working on a project titled Theater of Life, whose task is to move aspects of everyday life and cultural changes taking place in society as a result of the development of media and technology in the world. He was nominated for International Photography Award 2011 in the category of “Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year” and was also a participant in Eddie Adams Workshop in 2011.

About Photograph:

“This image shows a group of people taking part in competitions on the beach – searching for treasures in Pobierowo. Every year this event is organized for sunbathers.When I went to the beach and saw this situation, I knew I had to take a photo of it. The people were so busy looking for treasures they hardly noticed me. I took a few frames and went on. The entire scene looked like a huge one agricultural field. This photo is also part of my long-term project called Coastline. It is focus on three aspects: life of fisherman families, life on the beach and the landscapes.”

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Dorothee Deiss (b. 1961, Germany) studied medicine and photography and works as photographer and pediatrician in Berlin. She focuses on editorial stories, photography is her way to communicate, to approach these strangers and their stories. Her work has been published in numerous German and European magazines including the Financial Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Welt am Sonntag, Die Zeit, Spiegel, Stern and has been exhibited in Seattle, Vermont, Paris, Warsaw, Lithuania and Berlin.

About the Photograph:

“The region of the German-Polish border was politically divided in the wake of the Second World War, but its cultural memory has proven sturdier than any division. Who ever lives in the borderland is at home on both sides of the border. But what are things really like in this region? Where do the new borders run, the borders between hope and resignation? A contradictory picture of the borderland between Germany and Poland thus emerges at the time of the EU enlargement. To learn more about our neighbors on the other side of the border I traveled endless times with my old VW camper through Poland. By accident I met an general practitioner who lived in the small city Krosno Odrzanskie. I took this picture during the home visit by the doctor. The old woman represents the uncertainty and fear, the hope and confidence after the recent reunification.”

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Adam Panczuk (b.1978, Poland). After finishing secondary school, Adam moved to Poznań, where he took up studies at the University of Economics and Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. He graduated in 2005.and traveled through Asia from the Mid East to Siam taking photos. He reported on rickshaw pullers in India and on brothels in Bangkok. Five years ago he started working on a project about a Polish village which focused on the relationship between human beings and their relation to the earth, the seasons. In 2009 he won first prize at the Grand Press Photo in Poland and was also selected for the short list at the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards. He has also been awarded from the National Geographic Photography Contest.

About the Photograph:

“The photo comes from the Karczeby series. Karczeby in one of the dialects spoken in the east of Poland, which is a mixture of Polish and Belorussian. It is also a vernacular word for people strongly attached to the land they cultivate. A Karczeb is also called a stump with roots still stuck in the earth after the tree has been cut down – allegorical for the problems the various aggressive authorities have had with these people, trying to eradicate or dislocate them. However, they still stand tall on their land. And when a Karczeb farmer’s life comes to an end, he is buried in his soil, later on tilled by his children or grandchildren. In the photo, Rafal, who graduated from Law school at Warsaw University returned to father’s house to help him cultivate his 70-hectares farm.”

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Daniel Rosenthal (b. 1973 Germany), took up photography during his engagement in the antifascist movement in his hometown Heidelberg and quickly realized that it was the perfect means to address ignored existing problems in a very powerful and satisfying way. Since then his interest for reporting on social and political topics has taken him around the world: US sanctions on Iraq, Chechen refugees, street children in Berlin, forced child labor in the Ivory Coast, occupational accidents in China etc. His work appeared in GEO, Stern, de Volkskrant, Chrismon, Greenpeace Mag., Sunday Times Mag., Independent Saturday Mag., Vrij Nederland and received the Hansel-Mieth Award 2008 and Lead Award-Picture of the Year 2008 amongst others. He has a diploma in photo and design from Lette-School-Berlin and later studied photojournalism at London College of Communication.

About the Photograph:

“This is a photograph I shot last year during an assignment for GEO Magazine on demographic changes in Europe due to migrant workers. Poland was the first part of the story. I arrived in the tiny Polish village of Plaszkowa on Easter Monday (the most important Polish feast day) during heavy snowfall to meet Marian Tarasek for the first time (49 years, on the right). It was the day before he had to travel back to Ireland where he found a job as a construction worker, one of the many thousand Polish migrant workers there. Marian was very shy and thoughtful and it was obvious that having to leave his loved ones for another month made him sad. We sat down in silence underneath the religious icons on the wall. Suddenly his sons Damian and Mateusz came along and Marians wife served the traditional Polish beetroot soup, that’s when everything fell into place and the situation transformed into a biblical scene, embodying believe, humility and tradition mixed with everyday life. For me it was exactly one of those rare moments that make photography magical and loveable.“

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Aga Luczakowska (b.1981, Poland) graduated from the University of Silesia, with a masters degree in Geography. She worked for one year as a staff photographer for the polish daily newspaper Dziennik Zachodni in 2006. In 2007 Aga began frelancing and joined Atlas Press Photo Agency in addition to begin working with Silesian Magazine and other newspapers in Poland. In 2007, she also traveled to Turkey and started her project on women in Istanbul and attended the Eddie Adams Workshop. This year Aga been awarded a scholarship to attend the Masterclass “Focus On Monferrato 2008” hosted by Toscana Photographic Workshops. She is currently based in Poland.

About the Photograph:

“I photographed these volleyball fans in Poland. We Poles are considered one of the most impassioned fans in the world. It was the last minute of the final round between Poland and United States when I made this photo of the spectators watching the game on a giant video screen. I concentrated on their emotions rather than the actual players. This shot was from the last minute of the game.”

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Born in 1974, Przemysław Pokrycki is a Polish press photographer. He works as a freelancer and is a regular contributor to Polish magazines. Przemysław graduated from the photography department at the Film School in Łódź, Poland in 2002. In addition to his editorial work he has been part of several group shows including: International Discoveries, FotoFest. Houston 2007, The New Dokumentalists, Warsaw, 2006 and Poland Now, Schindler’s Factory, Cracow, 2006. His solo exhibits include: Rites de Passage, Starmach Gallery, Cracow, 2007 and Laborers, Luksfera Gallery, Warsaw, 2004

About the Photograph:

From the series Rites of Passage. “All my projects are based in Poland. The subjects are either friends or people I meet when photographing for the press. With my pictures I describe the world around me. This reality is very familiar but sometimes very surprising. There so many photographic projects to be done in Poland. I want to photograph here. I don’t look for extreme situations such as war, hunger or disasters. Society in itself is most interesting for me especially the changing life styles and standard of living after the transformation in 1989. I regret I didn’t start my projects 20 years ago.”

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About...

Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve Photo to feature photographs and interviews by the finest contemporary image makers today. Verve Photo is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve Photo will also point you to new photo agencies, publications, and inspiring multimedia projects.